An Idiot Abroad (TV Series 2010–2013) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Brit Karl Pilkington has led a sheltered life. Not having done any traveling, he enjoys living within the comforts of what he knows, basically that being what is purely British. As such, ... See full summary » Stars: Ricky and Stephen send Karl on his first trip to perhaps Karl's worst nightmare: China. The reason that Karl is so afraid of this locale is that what he is exposed to of Chinese culture - that being ... 8.3 Karl isn't overly concerned about going to Mexico beyond Ricky and Stephen's assertion that it probably is the most dangerous place from a personal safety perspective than anywhere he's traveled thus... 8.2 Karl, now back in Britain after his "seven wonders" trips, sits down with Ricky and Stephen to discuss the experience. Stephen is confused by Karl's seemingly contradictory statements about not ...

8.1 a list of 21 titles created 13 Jan 2011 a list of 32 titles created 01 Aug 2013 a list of 23 titles created 24 Apr 2014 a list of 35 titles created 21 Mar 2015 a list of 39 titles created 3 months ago Title: An Idiot Abroad (2010–2013) 8.3/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Karl is faced with the different aspects of life by travelling around the world and discovering how different people face life's challenges. Stars: Karl Pilkington, John Montgomery, Richard Yee Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant talk to Karl Pilkington about important things in life whilst Karl provides anything but intelligent answers. Comedy at its finest with wonderful animation.

Stars: Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Karl Pilkington Derek is a loyal nursing home care assistant who sees only the good in his quirky co-workers as they struggle against prejudice and shrinking budgets to care for their elderly residents. Stars: Ricky Gervais, Kerry Godliman, David Earl The show centers on Warwick Davis in his day-to-day life, complete with the frustrations he faces. Stars: Warwick Davis, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant Andy Millman is an actor with ambition and a script. Reduced to working as an extra with a useless agent, Andy's attempts to boost his career invariably end in failure and embarrassment. Stars: Ricky Gervais, Ashley Jensen, Stephen Merchant The story of an office that faces closure when the company decides to downsize its branches. A documentary film crew follow staff and the manager Brent as they continue their daily lives. Stars: Ricky Gervais, Martin Freeman, Mackenzie Crook Edit Storyline Brit Karl Pilkington has led a sheltered life. Not having done any traveling, he enjoys living within the comforts of what he knows, basically that being what is purely British.

As such, his friends, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant , decide to send Karl to various parts of the world to experience unfamiliar cultures. Stephen believes that travel is a life broadening venture, and hopes that Karl will indeed feel like his life is enriched by these travels. Ricky, however, hopes that Karl will hate every minute of his travels. For Ricky, this experiment is the most expensive gag for his own pleasure that he could have conceived. Written by Huggo 5 September 2010 (UK) See more » Also Known As: An Idiot Abroad 3 See more » Company Credits Karl once produced Ricky and Stephens radio show XFM See more » Quotes [first lines] Narrator: The seven wonders of the world. Christ the Redeemer. The Taj Mahal. The Great Pyramids. Truly man's greatest achievements. But there's one man who sees them differently. Karl Pilkington - Presenter : [viewing a picture of the pyramids] If that was on my road, the council would be on it to go get that down. It's a death trap. If you like Karl Pilkington, then you'll love this.

30 September 2010 | by MovieAddict2016 (UK) – See all my reviews People either love or hate Karl Pilkington. There isn't much middle ground. If you've been following the XFM radio show and podcasts over the past few years, you'll be well aware of the man and may even be part of his ever-growing cult following -- the bald Manc tw@t who began his career as the radio producer for Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant single-handedly stole the show from both of them, effectively making it The Karl Pilkington Show. Gervais had the rather genius idea of sending Karl around the world for this documentary to give his take on the "seven wonders of the world" (this was, in fact, its original title, before Gervais changed it in post-production to An Idiot Abroad, unbeknownst to Pilkington himself). If you "get" Pilkington then you will adore this. You'll find his dry humour and insights to be brilliant.

(His detractors claim he's simply stupid, but there is a certain level of genius to the majority of his comments and quick wit, including that story about the toad at the end of episode one and how he masterfully tied it together with the theme of the episode itself and his earlier experiences attempting to eat one of the creatures.) It's just great fun. I can't wait to watch the rest of the season. And if by chance you stumble across this show and enjoy it, do yourself a huge favour and go download the XFM shows and podcasts featuring Ricky, Steve and Karl -- some of the funniest recordings you'll ever listen to. 56 of 62 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Karl Pilkington - Biography - IMDb Karl Pilkington Jump to: Overview (3) | Mini Bio (1) | Trade Mark (4) | Trivia (3) | Personal Quotes (90) Overview (3) 6' 1" (1.86 m) Mini Bio (1) Karl Pilkington was born on September 23, 1972 in Manchester, Lancashire, England.

He is a writer and producer, known for The Ricky Gervais Show (2010), An Idiot Abroad (2010) and The Moaning of Life (2013). Trade Mark (4) Round head that resembles an orange Deadpan delivery He founded Round Ed Productions Limited. Personal Quotes (90) It would be spiteful to put a Jellyfish in a trifle. [on Gremlins (1984)] What are those things in Gremlins called? A dog has got human eyes They say it all started out with a big bang. But, what I wonder is, was it a big bang or did it just seem big because there wasn't anything else drown it out at the time? "People who live in a glass house have to answer the door." ~ Karl invents his own phrase based on 'Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.' Stay green, stay in the woods, and stay safe. ~ Karl's advice to chameleons A slug is always on its own. It's a lonely insect. I scored once, and that's only because I was being chased by a bee.

~ Karl's most vivid memory of playing football at school Why didn't evolution give them genes to make them good at carpentry then, so they could build a ladder instead of growing long necks? ~ on the the evolution of the giraffe [on whether his personality is real] People ask that about An Idiot Abroad (2010). They go, "Are you really like that?" And I am. But they've got to remember is that it's an edited program, innit? So I'm away for nine days, and probably... I don't know how many hours of film that is, but at the end of the day, it's edited down to, like, 45 minutes or something. So there's times when I watch it back and I think, "God..." But then I think about it, and I go, "Well, that's 45 minutes out of hours and hours." I'm pretty sure if I walked around with you and filmed you, and then somebody edited it down, I could either make you look like Stephen Hawking or make you look like... me. [on whether his personality is real] Yeah, it's me.

But I think what doesn't help is the title that Ricky came up with. You know, the fact that it's called An Idiot Abroad (2010) is annoying, 'cause people on the street, they'll sort of go, "Oh, it's the idiot!" Which isn't great. That isn't a dream come true. I never wanted that. But it's just because that's the name of the group. Like, if people see Ricky...or, like, before he was more known, it'd be like if they said, "Oh, look, it's the bloke from The Office (2001)." They're just going with the name that they know. It's just annoying that I have to be in a program with "idiot" in the title, so they go, "There's the idiot!" People think that I'm an actor called Graham. I wish I was. [on dopplegangers] How would I know which one I was? If you can't look a knob in the face there's something wrong. The Chinese, they don't age well. You never see a sort of 35 year old one.

Well, they're good looking when they're young but they age overnight. They're like a pear. The reason I did the book about holidays is that you're a different person on holiday. You're sleeping somewhere unfamiliar, knocking about with people you've never met and for 10 days you're someone else. You're out of your comfortable zone. I found that being with happy positive people annoys me. People who live in a glass house have to answer the door. I'd rather live in a cave with a view of a palace than live in a palace with a view of a cave. The other day I was thinking - because I get a lot of headaches - I was wondering whether the head should be where it is. Because, at the end of the day, it's probably the heaviest part of your body, right? And yet it's at the top as opposed to, I don't, dangling at the bottom somewhere. I've never understood the 'things to do before you die' idea. If I was ill, I'd be in no mood to have a swim with a dolphin.

When I go on holiday and people ask me what I do, I tell them I do some internet stuff and I've done a couple of books and I hope they just leave it at that. But I'm not an idiot. At the end of the day, I've learned a lot. That's the problem with having a bald head. It exaggerates the shape. I've done some luxury flying, which is brilliant. It has only happened once or twice, but it was nice because flying is the worst part of the holiday. But then again, if the plane crashes, you're still dead. For that much money I'd want a little capsule that whizzed me off to safety if it was going to crash. And we've got a toaster and everything. So there is no reason for the wedding. I'd say the best is when I was in Africa, I saw a hippo in a house. Someone had a pet hippo. And they're meant to be one of the most dangerous animals on the planet, and they had one that was sort of just wandering in and out of their house, just sort of roaming about. I just sort of go along and say what I think -and that's all you can do in life, really.

Being honest with you, it's not the 'great' wall of China. It's an all right wall. It's the 'All Right Wall of China.' If you sit in a bath of pineapple chunks, it can kill you. That's well documented. It's like there's some unwritten rule that if you're mates, you can say what you want to each other, and you don't really get that annoyed about it. I don't know what the future is, but you just do it whilst it's there, don't you? I'm not that lazy, but I don't need that much money. I lead a fairly simple life. Yesterday, I did some painting then went out to buy an onion and came home and watched 'University Challenge.' The onion was probably the highlight. Me mum used to always have the radio on - even now she has it on in every room. Me girlfriend sort of blames that reason for me not doing that well at school - constant noise, really. I say have the night and give people the awards, but why do people want to watch people win awards? What are they getting out of it? I don't quite get it.

Because they have awards all the time; there's awards for butchers, the best meat served, but they don't televise it. I don't know why they do it for films or TV programs. People eat duck and you think, well, we've got loads of chickens, leave the ducks alone! Parrots have gone a bit quiet since pirates have gone. It's not a joke: I really do like being at home. Getting old is better than being young. You can do what you want to do. It's not easy keeping a diary. You have to be pretty committed. I sometimes wonder how we're short of cod. There's gonna be a load deep down that are hiding. But it's a good reason to put the price up, and it means a load of people will have haddock. They should tell people they're running out of all sorts. Make 'em panic a bit. People always tell me I'm going to regret not having kids. But what if I have one and then I regret having it? Has anyone thought of that option? With evolution, things are always changing, so I sort of think: Should we all be growing three heads?

I think it's a problem when something's a dream because it'll never live up to your expectations. It's better to go somewhere thinking it'll be horrible, and then be pleasantly surprised. I had a bad experience doing public speaking at school. I had to talk about a pen for five minutes and it was really hard work. I couldn't wait to get off the stage. We'll all die out eventually. Humans will be gone. And all I'm saying is, when people worry about polar bears disappearing or whatever, it's like, 'Well that's life, things will come and go, we'll find new species.' You know, when you're a producer, you're a bit of a lackey. You're just making cups of tea and making sure they've got newspaper, stuff like that. Who'd have thought the Frisbee would have caught on? You can only live to be so old, then you gotta let go. I came face-to-face with a gorilla which was quite good, but it was a 10-hour trek in bad weather, up hills, covered in mud, with mosquitoes everywhere and when we got there the gorilla's just sat there doing nowt.

I really can't believe what a state the Pyramids are in. I thought they had flat rendered sides, but when you get up close, you see how they are just giant boulders balanced on top of each other, like a massive game of Jenga that has got out of hand. People say if bees die out, the world would end, apparently. Now, I don't know if that's true, if that's some bee enthusiast who managed to write a good document, and people believe this. I don't watch much telly, the telly hardly goes on, but the things I do watch are sort of nature programs, and something about the oceans and the amount of weird fish that's in there. I've never thought about it before, but I suppose bad people might need someone to pray to, too. I don't really go out at night in terms of noisy, busy places; I prefer more of a quiet corner somewhere. I'm not a proper traveler. I don't like to be challenged or have too much of a change and prefer a week away just to relax. If you're doing the same job every day, there's room for error.

For me, a good holiday is about value for money rather than things to see. Everyone is living for everyone else now. They're doing stuff so they can tell other people about it. I don't get all that social media stuff, I've always got other things I want to do - odd jobs around the house. No one wants to hear about that. I don't want to go about offending people; that's not my plan. I don't think I'd be a very good parent. I'd be too honest. I don't know what I'm meant to do. I'm not important, am I? I'm not doing anything that makes a difference. Comedy's really subjective, you know; that's why it's so hard. I've got loads of nieces and nephews. I've learnt that, even though I've travelled about, I haven't changed that much. I was impressed by the Taj Mahal. A good bit of work, well looked after, worth paying money to see. I drive a car, like an adult. Not brilliantly. I'm not great. At the end of the day, teachers aren't going to mess about trying to make me into an Einstein, 'cause it was never gonna happen.

We can't all be brainy, can we? That's just the way the world is. I went whale-watching, and I was really looking forward to that, but when you see it on TV and you see other programs do it, you're seeing close-ups of these massive creatures, and the music that's added gives you a certain feeling. But in reality, you're stuck on a boat that's bobbing up and down, you feel sick, the whale isn't there on demand. I am into nature and seeing whales. I went whale-watching, and I was really looking forward to that, but when you see it on TV and you see other programs do it, you're seeing close-ups of these massive creatures, and the music that's added gives you a certain feeling. When you've been on a programme called 'An Idiot Abroad' job offers aren't exactly flying in. To be honest, marriage doesn't scare me and that, it's just once you've been together for so long, if you haven't got any kids it's just a big expensive day out for everyone else to enjoy, isn't it? I think it's mental to pay for water. Where is that water coming from?

Are they in the hills puttin' it into bottles when years ago it used to roll down and go into the lakes? I love nature - it's probably my most favorite thing. I don't watch much telly, the telly hardly goes on, but the things I do watch are sort of nature programs, and something about the oceans and the amount of weird fish that's in there. I don't know any Londoners 'cos I'm from Manchester. The poorer people and criminals of Mexico who are not very religious but not quite atheists, either, worship Saint Death. I mean, I don't really go out at night in terms of noisy, busy places; I prefer more of a quiet corner somewhere. All fame is is having people you don't know coming up to you and saying, 'Hello.' I'm always polite and people are always nice, but it's weird. Making the 'An Idiot Abroad' series, I was really dreading going to India; I thought I'd hate it. It was a nightmare, and I was really ill - just like everyone says. I've never worried about life's big questions. I've never won many awards, I didn't get certificates for swimming or anything.

I don't know what 'famous' is, really. I'm not invited to any exciting parties and my life hasn't really changed. If you'd have told me five years ago that I'd have done all this - two books, some television and everything - I'd panic, I'd be scared. If you go away with, you know, a girlfriend, wife, whatever, you have an argument on holiday because you're not used to spending that much time with people. With acting, I didn't get much from it. We should all love animals. To me, a cat is an easy pet, they don't need any spoiling or looking after. Sometimes you can know too much. A lot of brainy people like Stephen Fry are quite depressive. See also Warwick Davis "An Idiot Abroad" Interview Round-up - MuggleNet by Claire · December 1, 2012 As previously reported before on MuggleNet, actor Warwick Davis – who portrayed Professor Flitwick in the Harry Potter film series – is appearing in the third series of An Idiot Abroad, alongside original host Karl Pilkington.

With the first episode airing yesterday, Warwick has undertaken quite the publicity run and has been giving interviews left, right and center. From playing Radio Poker on Absolute Radio to appearing on sofa of popular Breakfast programme, This Morning, Warwick has really been doing the rounds. Check out his Radio Times interview here and his interview with Karl for The Sun here . One thing seems clear from these interviews, Karl and Warwick, who’d only met ‘once or twice’ before beginning the trip, haven’t quite become “friends for life”! When asked by Holly Willoughby of This Morning if the pair now had a special bond after travelling for five weeks together, Warwick replied “It’s that same sort of bond, you get when you have gone through a trauma with someone.” An Idiot Abroad will be shown on Sky1 for the next two Fridays at 9:00 p.m. UK based fans of Warwick Davis can also catch the actor in this year’s New Wimbledon Theatre Christmas Panto, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. For more information, visit the ATG site . Share An Idiot Abroad | Wackbag.com An Idiot Abroad VMS Victim of high standards and low personal skills.

Joined: Wiki link Overview An Idiot Abroad charts Pilkington's reaction when visiting the New Seven Wonders of the World as well as to the situations he's placed in, the country's cultural habits and idiosyncrasies. It was stated by the show's producers that Pilkington has no prior warning about these situations. Gervais commented: "This is a (more real) documentary than most others you'll ever see on television. We don't plan it, he doesn't know what's going to happen." Though the New Seven Wonders of the World include the Colosseum in Rome, this is not one of Pilkington's destinations; instead he visits the Great Pyramids in Egypt. The show was originally going to be called Karl Pilkington's Seven Wonders. The ongoing theme of both the television series and the book is that Karl Pilkington indicates he has no interest in global travel and so Merchant and Gervais make him travel, for the purposes of the documentary, while they themselves stay in London and monitor his progress. There is an official podcast, to accompany the programme and book of An Idiot Abroad.

Pilkington, Gervais and Merchant had previously worked together on The Ricky Gervais Show on XFM. The program is scheduled to begin airing on 01/22/11 on The Science Channel in the United States. To fit in with other programming on the network, the show will now contain pop-up boxes of information about the destination or culture Karl is visiting. Click to expand... Ok, so I've caught a little bit of this show. It's funny, but in a kind of "he's almost right, but in a way that makes him totally wrong" way. Frankly, Karl reminds me a lot of 'baggers. I have traveled to a lot of these places, and I get where he's coming from to a small, certain degree. Travel is uncomfortable. International travel can be incredibly uncomfortable. Air conditioning isn't always what you would call comfortable, squat toilets are uncomfortable, having to bring your own toilet paper is uncomfortable, eating weird shit is uncomfortable... but it's still fun to travel. I guess it's kind of like camping. Taken as a sum total, camping is shit. Who wants to squat in the woods and bury their own shit? But people still do it.

Travel is kind of like that. I'm enough of a lazy fucker that I get really, really annoyed at the little discomforts of international travel, but at the same time I genuinely enjoy the travel. I live in that middle ground between being one of the suckers who goes to France and sees nothing but the tourist traps and being a completely cynical a-hole who sees nothing but the Muzzie tenement housing on the outskirts of Paris and the drug addicted hookers and combative homeless people. Likes Received: 1,513 First meeting Karl I'd think he was off somehow. I'd be looking for signs of him being slightly Autistic or OCD. Just listening to Rickys Podcast, I assumed he was, like Jimmy, some UK standup or presenter sitting in and shooting the shit. Maybe he had a low key style like Steven Wright. After learning his real background from Stephen Merchant and watching him in episode I of his travel series, I'm thinking yup. He has issues. Buster H said: ↑ Pretty good. Love the fact that he kept freaking out about eating "toad" Click to expand... Whats funny about that to me is it was a bucket of Frogs. They were basicly cutting off the legs.

Something we used catch and fry up when I was a kid. I'd have bought some of those. 700 Bobobie said: ↑ First meeting Karl I'd think he was off somehow. I'd be looking for signs of him being slightly Autistic or OCD. Just listening to Rickys Podcast, I assumed he was, like Jimmy, some UK standup or presenter sitting in and shooting the shit. Maybe he had a low key style like Steven Wright. After learning his real background from Stephen Merchant and watching him in episode I of his travel series, I'm thinking yup. He has issues. Click to expand... I don't think he has issues. I just think he's the ultimate average Englander whose worldview doesn't extend beyond Wales. He's not learned, but he's not stupid (by comparison, Spaz from the WNEW days was definitely STUPID). He's this average guy of average intelligence, with maybe something a bit special about him (not "special" like that), who ended up working with these two incredibly brilliant and funny men who were able to see that as common as Karl was, that there was definitely more to him. I love the guy!

3,440 Stormrider666 said: ↑ I will say there probably will be times that I will feel sorry for him in future episodes. Click to expand... Part of me feels sorry for him, but most of me loffs at his absurd slant on things. Ricky realized long ago that the more you press him, the more uncomfortable he gets, the funnier he becomes. Plus, no matter what, he won't ham it up for the camera. And like Gleet said, Ricky's laugh may be over the top at times, but as someone who has listened to the podcasts for a few years, it's genuine amazement/amusement. He has a high expectation that something absurd is about to be uttered, and he's rarely disappointed. 1,943 samurai said: ↑ Part of me feels sorry for him, but most of me loffs at his absurd slant on things. Ricky realized long ago that the more you press him, the more uncomfortable he gets, the funnier he becomes. Plus, no matter what, he won't ham it up for the camera.

And like Gleet said, Ricky's laugh may be over the top at times, but as someone who has listened to the podcasts for a few years, it's genuine amazement/amusement. He has a high expectation that something absurd is about to be uttered, and he's rarely disappointed. Click to expand... That's one of the things that I love about the show on HBO. They have animated Ricky's over the top laugh perfectly. Karl Pilkington - Pilkipedia Karl Pilkington Radio Producer, Head of Production and Author Partner Karl's Dad , Karl's Mam "Come together and annoy Karl. He is your leader. He is your messiah! He is your god! And he fucking hates it." - Ricky Gervais Karl Pilkington (born 23 September 1972 in Manchester, England) is an English radio producer, author, television presenter, actor and general round-headed buffoon. Having previously been known for producing The Ricky Gervais Show on the radio station Xfm , Pilkington reached an international audience through his appearances with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant on the similarly titled, record-breaking podcast series .

He has since been the presenter of Sky 1 documentary An Idiot Abroad , and starred as caretaker Dougie in Derek . Contents Career Before Ricky and Steve Karl went to work as a printer after leaving school at age 15, and was made to work a 24-hour shift pressing CDs for the band Smokey. He partly attributes his baldness to this grueling schedule. Karl also briefly hosted an overnight phone-in show on a Manchester radio station where he was something of an agony uncle. [1] It was in Manchester that he met long-time girlfriend Suzanne . He later moved on to work as Head of Production at London radio station Xfm, where he worked for seven years and would first cross paths with Ricky and Steve. Karl was given the job of producing their second run of shows at the station, shortly after the first series of The Office ran on BBC2 . At first he merely "pressed the buttons", but his quirky antics and unique worldview soon prompted Gervais and Merchant to make him a third member of their team.

Karl might sometimes wish he never met Ricky On-Air Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant Having been assigned to produce The Ricky Gervais Show with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant , Karl began his on-air role by occasionally interjecting during the broadcast. As more of his anecdotes and opinions were revealed, he became more of a focal point of the show. Eventually, he began to take part in and create segments. The first feature introduced that focused on Karl was White Van Karl , where Karl gave his thoughts on current events and minor news stories. Then, following the live revelation that Karl only passed one GCSE, Ricky began Educating Karl on key topics in history and literature. As Ricky and Steve started to put less effort into the show, Karl began creating his own segments such as Educating Ricky , Monkey News , and Rockbusters . Having masterminded these bits, Karl's relative status on the show grew, with Ricky eventually saying it should be called "The Karl Pilkington Show". After the end of the Xfm show, Karl remained part of the trio, giving up his position as head of production at Xfm to make podcasts with Ricky and Steve and work on his writing.

When Danny Wallace debuted his Saturday show on Xfm on 9th February 2008, Karl recorded a message for him containing advice and support on how to do a radio show and revealing that he had only received an extra thirty pounds for each show he did with Ricky and Steve. The Russell Brand Show Karl also co-hosted four radio shows with Russell Brand on BBC 6Music . Three shows aired after Christmas in 2005 with Karl and Russell substituting for Nemone. Another aired on 09 April 2006, the beginning of the Russell Brand Show. After this show, Karl no longer had a speaking role, but was talked about on air and seen on the webcam during the next couple of shows. There is speculation that Karl's participation in the show was discontinued due to his contract obligations with Ricky and Steve. Russell Brand remained on BBC 6Music with new co-presenters Matt Morgan and Trevor Lock (which Karl once was guest on over the phone on 11 June 2006) until November 2006 when he moved on to BBC Radio 2.

Brand has recalled his stint with Karl with affection but also described Karl, perhaps facetiously, as "difficult to work with" at the same time. [2] Podcasts "...but his head come off." Karl was undoubtedly the star of the podcasts in which he appeared alongside Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant . The first series ran for 12 weeks, from 05 December 2005, with one episode released each Monday. Before setting out to do the podcasts, Karl quit his job as Head of Production at Xfm , receiving a digital camera as his leaving present, which he gave to his long-term girlfriend Suzanne for Christmas. [3] The podcasts featured Ricky and Steve probing Karl's world-views similarly to how they had done during the radio show, as well as e-mails containing questions and facts sent in for Karl to answer or react to due to his unfailing nontraditional perspectives. Karl consequently became the centrepiece of show, and the podcasts were a massive success. The show received a Guinness World Record in 2007 for being the Most Downloaded Podcast ever, and in September 2006 the BBC estimated that the show had been downloaded 18 million times.

Highlights of the first series included Monkey News , Karl's famous quote of "I could eat a knob at night", and the introduction of Karl's Diary . In 2006 a second series of the show began, albeit the podcast now cost a small fee as opposed to being free. After finishing a third series later on that year, the show was put on a brief hiatus, but returned with three seasonal specials. A fifth series began in 2008, before a format change that saw the trio return in an audiobook series called The Ricky Gervais Guide To... . The last episode, The Ricky Gervais Guide To... Comic Relief , was released in March 2011. The most recent podcast Karl appeared on was Learn English with Ricky Gervais , a 20-minute YouTube video in which Karl and Ricky discussed the English language. The episode was billed as a pilot, but since its release there has been no word on a full series. Ricky was once quoted as saying, "It shouldn't be called the Ricky Gervais Show, it should be called the Karl Pilkington show, I mean it's ridiculous, I'm so lazy, I just turn up now and prod him".

[4] The stardom that Karl received from the shows helped him launch his subsequent television career, although Karl still felt having recorded the podcasts "I haven't done anything of any worth". TV Appearances Karl's first appearances on television were on Flipside TV during the Xfm years. In line with the show's format, Karl commented on various television programs, mainly staying focused on shows featuring the paranormal and oddities. In a later radio show, Ricky said Karl quit participating in the program because he did not like the fact that his parents or relatives might be watching him. [5] In August 2006, Karl created four short films for 3 Minute Wonder , a documentary shorts strand that followed Channel 4 News on weekdays. The segments were titled Some Thoughts by Karl Pilkington and were essentially Karl's musings and observations on subjects like life, travel, health, and animals. Locations included a museum, in a tent while camping, his house, and the zoo. The documentary that followed Karl through a museum drew some strong criticism from Sunday Times reader Wendy Robinson , which is referenced in Series 3 Episode 4 of the Podcast series .

Despite this, in October 2007, Karl appeared in a feature-length Channel 4 documentary entitled Karl Pilkington: Satisfied Fool . In it, he interviews scholars and writers ("brainy people," as he says) in an attempt to discover whether intelligence is the key to happiness. After years of working with Ricky and Steve, Karl finally had a cameo in one of their shows at the end of 2007, when he appeared as an autograph seeker in the Christmas Special of Extras . Karl also made a number of contributions to BBC Two's The Culture Show having first been interviewed on the show in late 2006. In February 2010, HBO began airing The Ricky Gervais Show (HBO) . The programme uses the audio from The Ricky Gervais Show podcasts and The Ricky Gervais Guide To... audiobooks, and animates them in a retro style similar to that of The Flintstones. The show also began airing on Channel 4 on April 23rd 2010, and introduced a whole new audience to the genius/idiocy of Karl Pilkington. There animations lasted for three series before Ricky decided to end them.

Karl sometimes admits that the animated version of the podcast is the only time he can listen to or watch himself. In 2010 Karl began filming a series called An Idiot Abroad for Sky 1, a show that would see Karl tour seven wonders of the modern world in an effort to see if any of them would impress him. The show aired in 2010 and received very strong viewing figures. Karl appeared to have an awful time during most of the journeys, but agreed to do a second series as long as 'he could choose what he got to do'. With that, the premise of An Idiot Abroad 2 was born, with Karl this time choosing items off of a bucket list. Ricky, however, tweaked the majority of his picks and once more Karl found himself suffering throughout his trips. The series began airing on the 23rd of September 2011 (Karl's birthday). Highlights of series 2 included Karl being molested by monkeys, refusing to bungee jump and lying to Ricky about it even though he was on camera, and being tricked into receiving his first ever prostate exam while secretly filmed by Ricky and Steve.

A three-part special, entitled An Idiot Abroad: The Short Way Round was filmed and broadcast at the end of 2012. In this final series, Karl teamed up with Life's Too Short star Warwick Davis and the two of them travelled the Marco Polo route from Venice to China. Along the way Karl and Warwick appeared to have a fractious relationship, and Karl displayed an occasionally astonishing ignorance of Dwarfism, culminating in him asking Warwick 'do you have knees?'. Ricky confirmed that this would be the final series of An Idiot Abroad , but it was recently confirmed that Sky 1 would be commissioning a new series called The Moaning of Life , in which Karl will be exploring the world without Ricky's guidance. Written Work Karl has penned five books since leaving Xfm and banding with Ricky and Steve. The first, The World of Karl Pilkington , was essentially transcripts of the first series of podcasts along side drawings done by Karl. Several new anecdotes and diary entries were included in the book as well. The second book, Happyslapped by a Jellyfish , is a travelogue that documents the many holidays Karl has taken in his life. The third book Karlology is about what Karl has learnt in his life.

The fourth is the companion book to An Idiot Abroad, released in 2010. Karl followed this up with The Further Adventures of An Idiot Abroad. To promote the release of his fifth book, Karl held book-signings in Watford and Manchester, in which lucky fans were able to meet the round-headed twonk in person. Karl was given gifts of cards, Munchies and Revels during the day. Film Appearances Karl appeared as an extra in The Invention of Lying in a caveman sequence that did not make the final cut of the film. He filmed the role in Boston, Massachusetts during the summer of 2008 and a behind the scenes special appeared on The Culture Show. Although the scene was cut, it appeared as a DVD extra. Karl also has a small non-speaking role in the film Cemetery Junction , a film written and directed by Ricky and Steve. Ricky mainly used the opportunity to put Karl in a ridiculous wig, a justification that would later see Karl appear in Derek . The film was released on 14 April 2010. Childhood Many of Karl's anecdotes are centered around his childhood.

Several stories are so ingrained in Pilkington fandom that even the people and places in them have become notorious. During the time of the Xfm shows, these anecdotes were a prime source of Karl's comedic ammunition, causing his co-presenters to be captivated, amazed, and roaring with laughter at the stories he told from his past. School Karl lived in Manchester for most of his life. The descriptions of his childhood suggest he had an unconventional upbringing. Growing up on a council estate, he was educated at Ashton-on-Mersey School but was regularly absent due to family holidays, arranged by his parents during term-time when it was cheaper to do so. He claims that during his school years he was given two attendance awards in an attempt to persuade him to remain in school. This strategy failed, and Karl continued his excessive absences. He now contends that he was never encouraged by his teachers and was even told by one ( Mrs Matthews ) that he would "never be a high flier". [6] Moreover, he disliked school because his teachers were "profiting" from his education and complains that in class he was regularly given menial and pointless tasks, such as attaching as many stickers to Thomson brochures as possible in 30 minutes.

One year, Karl participated in his school's Christmas production. He was playing the drums and had to wear a little hat. Whilst sat at his drums he started playing along to " Little Donkey " (although he wasn't supposed to) and the crowd went wild. However, Karl was scarred by the incident as his father was filming the event and quipped "He looks like a right twat". Karl attributes this to a fear of performing [7] . Karl's school was near a chemical plant [8] . This might explain the large number of "weird looking" pupils there, including two students who had big heads and webbed hands. Karl claimed they were unrelated and that they were not friends because that would be "too obvious". Another boy at the school had a "pigeon's chest" [9] . These early childhood memories may help explain Karl's inherent fascination with "freaks". Karl was never particularly good at football as a child; He remembers scoring only 1 goal, and that was only because he was being chased by a bee at the time. [10] Near Death Experiences Karl's arch nemesis Karl had a number of near-death experiences as a child.

The most serious, he feels, was when he nearly choked to death on a Mr. Freeze pop. Karl believed he was so close to death during that incident that in the next few days he felt like "a special person". As well as this, he almost plummeted to his death one snowy morning when he was forced to climb out of an upstairs window to do his paper round . His mother had locked the front door to stop him from delivering papers in blizzard conditions, and Karl fell out of the window and had to hang on until his Dad arrived, who at first thought he was a burglar. In another incident, Karl "kicked his height" (kicked his leg as high as his head) and then fell hard on his back because he forgot to put his foot down. Karl believes that this is why he now has back troubles. Karl has also described how a church worker "nearly killed him in a car crash" when trying to take him to Crusaders on a Sunday. There is also the infamous "bad cream" affair, in which Karl got a stomachache after consuming too many day-old cakes.

The family doctor, after being told that Karl had overindulged on tainted sweets, facetiously told his mum that he didn't have long to live. The joke went over his mum's head, causing a panic until Karl's dad called the doctor later to clarify. Then there was the occasion at his brother's wedding, where he was walking while reading and almost fell off a cliff. Another time, Karl started running down a large hill and couldn't stop. He said he tried to throw himself on the floor but he was going so fast that he just bounced up again. His Father's friend had to rugby tackle Karl to the ground. Finally, in 2006 Karl underwent a operation to have kidney stones removed. Though routine, through the experience he felt as though he were hovering between life and death. GCSE Results Karl left school without collecting his exam results. On an Xfm show, Karl recalled that he had taken multiple exams, but could not remember exactly which ones. He thought he had done art (where he'd made a "little clay man putting his arms into a car"), maths, and a few others.

After some investigation, Ricky Gervais revealed on live radio that Karl had attained a single "E" GCSE grade in History. This came as a surprise to Karl as he had no recollection of actually taking that particular exam. The "excitement" of this news was tempered somewhat by the discovery that he had not received grades for any of the GCSEs he did remember taking. It seems he had not registered for those exams. [11] Jobs Karl went through a number of jobs as a child, his favourite of which was a paper round. To this day, he claims that this was the best job he ever held. The main reason he enjoyed it was because he was his own boss. When Steve pointed out that the newsagent was technically his boss, Karl replied with "nah", maintaining his original opinion. Karl also had a job in a local grocers called "Cordon Bleu". He did not particularly excel at his position. Once when stocking packages of chicken, a drumstick fell out onto the ground. Karl, rationalizing that someone might just want one chicken drumstick, labeled it with a price and stocked it on the shelf. His superiors were upset at this but did not fire him.

On another occasion, Karl sat in a trolley and pushed himself into a puddle in the back lot. He ended up stranded, unable to get out in fear of getting his new trainers wet. When his manager told him to get out or he would lose his job, Karl refused and he was sacked on the spot. He sat in the puddle for 30 minutes further before he decided to get out. Taking a giant leap, he hopped out only getting one foot wet. Karl has also mentioned the time that he worked at a Printers. Karl lamented how difficult it was when they were using gold ink, stating that "you really had to get your rollers clean". Family Karl draws Auntie Nora Over the years, Karl has described the members of his extended family in vivid detail. Karl's dad is portrayed as a very short-tempered man. While working as a bus driver, he had difficulty controlling a mentally challenged passenger, so he decided to place him in a wheelie bin . He also once dropped a group of elderly women off on the side of the road because they were too demanding and was subsequently fired. Furthermore, he once clouted Karl for suggesting that they should knock down a castle.

It has also been revealed that Karl's dad regularly steals from the other residents of the Welsh village in which he lives. Karl's mum is notable for her strange behaviour towards pets. When one of the family budgies died, she glued some of its feathers to a rock and placed it in the cage to keep the other bird company. She also dealt with a frequently ill cat by shaving it, which made it easier to clean. She was somewhat overprotective of Karl in his youth, once making him stay home from school because it was windy and she was afraid Karl might get "blown into the road", and once locking him in the house to stop him from doing his paper round while it was snowing. Karl has an older brother and sister from whom he appears to be estranged. His brother Mark was something of a womanizer. Throughout Karl's youth, strange women would come to the Pilkington home claiming that Mark had gotten them pregnant. Mark also served in the British Army, joining up just before the Falklands War. Karl claims that he did not have to fight in the conflict because his Mum had sent the Lieutenant a letter saying "can you leave him out of this one?".

He was discharged after he drove a tank to a nearby store to buy cigarettes. Karl once ran into his sister in a parking lot, but their reunion was somewhat hampered by his lack of interest in pictures of her newborn son. Arguably, Karl's most infamous family member is his Auntie Nora . Karl recalled that on one occasion she phoned his mother complaining that she had been breaking wind for five minutes [12] . When Karl was a child, he accidentally glimpsed up her dress, and later described what he saw as resembling a "ripped tennis ball". In the last series of the Xfm shows, Karl claims to have gotten in trouble with his family for discussing Auntie Nora in an interview with a magazine. Her other antics include wanting an astro-turf lawn, putting a valance on everything, and mashing up all her food. Karl also has a lesbian aunt whom he calls Uncle Hazel . [13] Books The Further Adventures of An Idiot Abroad Published: Autumn 2012 The nation's favourite idiot is back. Safely home from his latest travels, Karl has decided it is time to share his hard-earned wisdom of the world.

Taking the Bucket List of '100 Things to Do Before You Die' as his starting point, Karl combines brilliant stories from his recent adventuresto Alaska, Siberia and beyond with entertaining, highly-opinionated views on what other people aspire to do with their lives. * Why on earth would anybody want to run with the bulls in Pamplona? * Go 'storm chasing' through Tornado Alley? * Have lunch with the Queen? * Or touch hands with the Pope? The Further Adventures of An Idiot Abroad is a fitting finale to two years of eventful globe-trotting. Frank, funny and strangely inspiring, this is Karl's final word on travel. Quotes and Opinions See also: Karl Pilkington Quotes , Karl's Theories , Dictionary of Karl Pilkington , Flaws in Karl's reasoning It was Karl himself who best summed up his worldview: "I don't like fun". He is not a fan of holidays, parties, traveling, or anything that has to be planned in advance. Maintaining relationships with family and friends is a tremendous hassle for him. He is also largely indifferent to some of life's great pleasures, like sex and music .

Another of Karl's most memorable quotes was from The Ricky Gervais Show Podcast. In the first series in episode 3 Karl announced "I could eat a knob at night" during a discussion about a reality TV show, "I'm a celebrity get me out of here". Since this a number of merchandise has been produced from t-shirts to thongs with this quote printed on them. In addition after Karl said this quote Stephen and Ricky asked if there was any DJ's out there who would make a mix of this quote. The response to this was strong with Ricky, Stephen and Karl receiving hundreds of tracks. At the end of series 1 episode 5 they played their favorite track that they had received. As well as his specific views, ideas and philosophies, Karl also has a unique way of speaking . Karl's idiolect is made up of old-fashioned sayings (eg. "have it away"), Mancunian slang (eg. "knockin' about"), and correct English that has been misspoken (eg. "squoze"). See Also

Question: What is the name of the Idiot Abroad in the programme of the same name?
Answer: KARL PILKINGTON